Mom and I spent the day at the National Gallery of Art.

The Martin Puryear sculpture was mind-expanding and thoroughly enjoyable. The pieces are all huge- filling up entire rooms and reaching toward the ceiling, and all are really moving. I think this is the first time I have really responded to modern sculpture.

We also toured the Afghanistan, Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul exhibit. Unbelievable. The exhibit consisted of artifacts hidden by museum curators to protect them from pillaging and destruction during the violence of the last few decades. It was a lot to absorb: the history of the locations along the 'Silk Road', the intersections of the many different cultures that influenced the area, the chronology of it all. It was not hard at all, however, to immerse myself in the beauty of the arifacts, especially the jewelry and decorative items. I even chose the 'Silk Road' lunch special- hummus, pita, stuffed grape leaves, and roasted red peppers.

My mother and I were both surprised to see heart-shaped elements in the Afghan jewelry from around the first centuries before and after Christ's birth. We read that the shape was used from even more ancient times than that and derived from the shape of a native plant leaf that people associated with the human heart.

Oh, and on on our way to and from these exhibits, we happened to see any number of extremely famous paintings by artists such as Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, etc., etc. It seemed wrong not to stop and look, but weird not to be able to give every amazing thing we saw a full measure of our attention.

Dad spent the day in the PET scanner and MRI machine. He sincerely encouraged us to go out for the day, but I know it weighs heavily on my Mother that he cannot experience things with her. After a life of enjoying the world together, they have had to make a lot of changes. The thing that has not changed is their love and concern for one another- an example to all of us.